1. Field of the Invention
The invention is in the field of the production of transmission media, both electrically conductive (e.g., wires) and nonconductive (e.g., optical waveguides).
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
A technique which has been used to join plastic coated wires into flat cables involves the passage of the individual wires on either side of a heated blade to produce localized melting of the thermoplastic jacket. The wires are then pressed together to form the desired bond (U.S. Pat. No. 2,749,261 issued on Mar. 30, 1953). While well suited to many ranges of use, this method has limitations as one wishes to bond wires of smaller size and at faster feed rates. At smaller wire sizes, the mechanical and thermal design of the blade becomes more difficult. At higher feed rates it is necessary to operate the blade at higher temperatures in order to increase the rate of flow of thermal energy. For any given thermoplastic material there is an upper limit to the usable blade temperature because of deterioration of the material.